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CFD has been actively applied for developing automotive air conditioning system in recent years. In addition to automobile interior air conditioning, an automotive air conditioning system has the important function of providing a clear field of view by defogging (or defrosting) the windows. Although many CFD application methods have been reported for estimating windshield defogging pattern, few examples of simulation show accurate result of transient clearing pattern. To predict transient clearing pattern accurately, using a correct model of window glass fogging-clearing is important. As the result of our observation on fogged glass surfaces, fogging was found out to be an aggregation of water drops, so that new dropwise condensation-evaporation model was developed and applied. Transient defogging patterns were simulated with the CFD code including this model, and accuracy was verified on a simplified compartment model and actual automobiles.

Accuracy of numerical simulation has to be evaluated through the actual phenomenon such as experiment or measurement and then it can be employed to design the air-conditioning system of car cabin at the development phase. Scaled model of vehicle cabin was created by the Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan (JSAE) and the experiment was performed to obtain the detailed information of heat transfer characteristics inside the cabin under the non-isothermal condition. The sheet heaters were put to the inner surface of the acrylic cabin and they supplied certain amount of heat. The temperatures of inner and outer surface and air were measured to evaluate the thermal environment of the cabin. The results lead to enhancement of the data of the standard model of the cabin.